In a Nutshell: People are busy. Don’t waste your audience’s time with boring drivel. Follow the ideas outlined in today’s podcast to deliver an engaging presentation that captures attention and leads your audience to take action.
Guest: Matt Abrahams, a lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business where he teaches two popular classes on strategic communication and effective virtual presenting. He’s also the co-founder of Bold Echo Communication Solutions and the author of Speaking Up Without Freaking Out: 25 Techniques for Confident, Calm, and Competent Presenting.
My Key Takeaways:
- Start with your audience. The list of things you want to communicate is secondary to what your audience needs to hear.
- What? So what? Now what? This simple three-part framework can provide an effective communication structure for any presentation.
- Don’t kill your audience with bullets. Lists, facts, and figures go in one ear, out the other … and take your audience’s attention away with them.
Also Learn:
- How “promoting forces” and “restraining forces” affect your ability to persuade or motivate an audience.
- Tips for steering a Q&A away from an unruly audience member without offending anyone.
- Why Matt believes speakers have to stop opening with “Hi, my name is Steve, and I’m going to talk about …” and start thinking like an action movie director.
Complementary blog post: Brooke Southall, the founder of RIABiz, talked to me about how to separate yourself from clickbait and produce content that’s authentically human. Listen/read here.
Resources Featured In This Episode
Values Clarification Toolkit Click here to download this FREE tool and start living your values.
